American elections: running mates

As I said recently, following the US presidential nomination and election race is a great way in for those new to American politics. There is acres of coverage on the US news sites, with reporters already getting towards fever pitch on the GOP race. The latest buzz inside the beltway is that Rick Perry has nudged ahead of Mitt Romney in a series of opinion polls.

Opinion at this stage is notoriously soft, but that doesn’t dampen the sense of excitement.

And there is even speculation about who might accompany the eventual nominee on the Republican ticket! See here, where the Post looks at the viability of Marco Rubio as a running mate.

This speculation might seem ridiculous given that we are months away from New Hampshire, but articles such as this do throw up a few tasty morsels for US Pol students, leading to questions about the importance of the running mate. In terms of recent elections nominees have sought to “balance the ticket”, looking for someone who has attractive features that they perhaps lack. The classic example here is the 1960 Boston-Austin axis where JFK, a young, inexperienced, liberal catholic chose LBJ, the anglo-saxon, Senate majority leader from the lone star state . More recently, Obama chose Biden in an attempt to torpedo any attacks about being lightweight on foreign policy. Academic thinking suggests running mates may not win you elections, but they could potentially weaken your prospects if you get it wrong - Sarah Palin in ‘08 is often cited here.

So go ahead and check out Rubio—see if you can work out how he might potentially strengthen the hand of a future Republican candidate.